Truest Love
by InvisiblePuppeteer
Summary: Rilian is having night terrors and Jill is there for him. His confessions brings Jill to think over a belief that she had discarded as a child. (Rilian and Jill pairing)
When Jill was younger, her parents always seemed so happy together. Sure, they had had their differences and Jill could remember a few fights that they had had while she was growing up. However through a child's eyes her parents always reminded her of a fairy tale—a love that could deny time and last forever. She grew up believing in true love and the power it held. Of course, all little girls believed that true love was the cure all for everything from a tormented past to evil witches.

But, like all children Jill grew up and fell away from those beliefs. She watched her parents get divorced after her mother had an affair, and her belief in 'true love' dwindled into nothing but a childhood dream.

Jill was startled from her thoughts as her husband tossed and turned next to her and she turned toward him. "My little wife," he sighed as her eyes met his. He seemed to have just barely woken up from a nightmare. "My bride…My Jill. You're safe." His hand reached out and caressed her cheek. She shifted closer to him and he wrapped his arm around her waist. He then dragged her across the bed and pressed her up as close to him as possible. Jill had returned to Narnia a handful of years after her first journey with Eustace. She was terrified that everything would have changed. She had woken up in a field not far from the Cair with pain in her chest and, on wobbly legs, she made the talk to the castle gates, all the while hearing Eustace's voice echo through her mind. _A month has passed for me…but for Caspian—it's been a life time._ Jill was so scared that everything would be different. To her amazement, who should come trotting towards the castle walls but Rilian himself? At first, she thought that the man was very probably a descent of Rilian's but, that idea was blown out of the water when the man turned his gaze on her and promptly dismounted. He had rushed up to her and taken her into his arms. It was then their relationship began and grew into the happy marriage she now had.

"Rilian, you were dreaming. Won't you finally tell me what you dream of?"

It was the first time he had had the nightmares since they had married. Before their wedding Rilian would wander around at night after a nightmare until he wound up pounding on her door until she let him in. He would rush to her and hold her as if her life depended on it. He would rock her as he sank to the floor and it wouldn't be long until it was Jill who wrapped her arms around him, anchoring him as he fought of the darkest beings that plagued him. On those nights they would fall asleep curled up together.

"No, no. My darling." He agonized. "I must'nt tell you."

It was her turn to sigh. "Rilian, you must. Please, I—I don't like to see you in pain."

In response, her husband pressed his lips to hers and kissed her insistently. His hands began to travel her body and her mind fogged as she kissed him back. It wasn't until a few more kisses later that Jill realized that he was trying to distract her. "No," she said firmly as he tried to press on. "Rilian. Stop." She put her hand on his chest and pushed.

He looked at her startled and his hands flew from her body as her voice raised at him. "Have…What has angered you?"

Jill looked at him, a hint of hurt in her eyes. "You, Rilian. I don't appreciate you attempting to distract me from your night terrors. I want to help."

Rilian sat up in bed, the sheet slipping off his chest. He put his hands on his head and Jill noticed him taking deep breaths. "I have no desire talk about them."

"Well, I do." She had known that he was near a breaking point and with a little more pushing it didn't take long for Rilian to begin talking.

He hesitantly reached out for her again and she allowed him to hold her.

"The dreams," he began softly, "In the dreams…the witch has us bespelled. I am, once again, in that damnable chair. I break free—more oft than not—and there is no sanity. There is only anger and violence. Puddleglum and Eustace are absent. It is only you and I in these dreams. In these terrors…many different things happen. The worst of them," he stopped. He touched her face and stroked her hair, as if to reassure himself that she was there. "In the most malevolent dreams, I am still under the madness and I cannot tell you friend from foe. I transform into a serpent and I strike you, other times I drag you into the madness. Once, in one of these terrors, I turned my sword on you." Vulnerability shook his voice and Jill reached up to touch his cheek in comfort. She wasn't surprised to feel the tear tracks on where her fingertips brushed his skin. He went on to tell her about his other demons that plagued him in the night and she simply listened, alternating between running her fingers through his hair and rubbing small circles on his shoulders in comfort. He shook as he cried, the thought of hurting her too overwhelming to bear.

She whispered to him, cooing and assuring him of her safety. "You could never hurt me," she told him. "Just as I could never cause you harm. You are a good man."

Sometime later in the night, after everything had been said and reassurances made and when they were both falling asleep, Rilian spoke again. "Even enchanted as I was, when you stepped into the Witch's court, I knew you would do me good. The spell pushed anger though me and I could barely keep the magic from making me hurt you. However, some part of me knew. It knew that you were to be loved and not harmed. I will not harm you—bewitched or otherwise." He tucked her closer and fell asleep, as she mulled over this information.

She remembered that day very well. Under the enchantment he was very quick to anger—going so far as to attempt to duel Eustace and then almost slaying Puddleglum!—but even when he was angry with her, he suddenly calmed almost as soon as he had gotten enraged. While in the silver chair and his mind clouded with madness, he reached out and held her too him—she had assumed that he was trying to hold her hostage to get her companions to release him—but as soon as he held her, Rilian began to calm. She continued to replay those events in her head, that day being forever preserved in her memory. Jill made the startling conclusion that there was _something_ that had kept the bespelled Rilian from hurting her.

She began to feel her mind drift along that line of thought and somewhere, deep in her memory, an image popped into her head. One of her favorite storybooks from her childhood had a character who had the same eyes as Rilian. She struggled to remember the story. It certainly had something to do with a temperamental prince and the woman who saved him from some terrible curse through the power of true love. As the story came back to her, bits and pieces began to remind her of the relationship she shared with Relian and their own story. With a strange sense of peace, Jill came to the conclusion that true love had to exist in some fashion. Because, even though her parents hadn't found their truest love, she most certainly had.


End file.
